The institute has been characterized as focused on offering slickexecutive education. The presence of the non-academic Tom Petzinger on NECSI's faculty list backs that assertion up. But there appears to be more going on, including outreach and educational support, publication and conferences, and grant channeling.

Complex systems have multiple interacting components
whose collective behavior cannot be simply inferred
from the behavior of components. The recognition that
understanding the parts cannot explain collective
behavior has led to various new concepts and methodologies that are affecting all fields of science
and engineering, and are being applied to technology, business and even social policy.